Black Sheep Gathering 2016

Posted on June 28, 2016 by Robin

Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon is an event I always look forward to. I don’t go as a vendor so it’s not work. It’s more like a road trip with sheep. Usually friends and Farm Club members (who are friends too) carpool but this year we were all on different schedules and instead we met up once we were in Oregon.

Loaded and ready to go. I took ten sheep, five of which were going to a new home. Fortunately only two were yearlings and the rest were lambs or I wouldn’t have had room. That was Thursday. It was a long day because I just couldn’t seem to stay awake for the drive. I left the house at 6:30 a.m. but stopped at several rest stops to take short naps and finally pulled into the fairgrounds about 4:30.

Black Sheep Gathering opened Friday morning with too many choices. What is a fiber fanatic to do? Watch the wool show? Watch the sheep show? Go to class? Shop?

Several friends participated in the Sheep-to-Shawl competition on Friday in which teams have five hours to prep fiber, spin yarn, and weave a shawl.

They spent many hours prior to the event dyeing and spinning the warp yarn, warping the loom, and sampling…

…to determine how they would use this beautiful fiber to spin the weft yarn.

Weaver, Gynna, wove a beautiful shawl (but I didn’t get a photo when it was finished).

Walking back to the barn to get ready for the Jacob sheep show I saw… Shetland ram

…this Shetland ram displaying his ribbon.

Time to take the sheep to the show ring.

Even though we had spent time working with the sheep they were not always cooperative. That is ram lambs, Marv and Meyer.

A friend who lives in Davis helped me show. That’s the judge inspecting Meyer’s fleece.

Checking Marv’s fleece.

This is Lauren, one of the yearling ewes. I hadn’t planned to sell her but she stayed in Oregon as a trade for another yearling. (That will be another story.)

Meridian Marv (Meridian Rotor x Meridian Marilyn) won Champion Jacob Ram… 15031 Honey-BSG

…and yearling, Meridian Honey (Meridian Alex x Meridian Hot Lips), was Champion Jacob Ewe.

It’s fun to win ribbons and trophies, but there were only two of us exhibiting sheep and I was the lucky one this year. In other years they have won the ribbons. The other breeder has beautiful sheep too and I brought three of them home with me.

This is one of them and she will be introduced formally in another post.

Sunday Morning in the Pasture

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Robin

I switched lenses this morning to get a different view of What’s In The Pasture.

The sheep followed me to the horse pasture gate but I didn’t let them out there.

Instead I climbed on the gate to get a photo of the neighbor’s alfalfa being cut. hawk hunting

This hawk was flying over the field hopeful that breakfast would be flushed out from the alfalfa harvest.

Western kingbird

Western Kingbird on the powerline at the south end of the pasture. Swainson's hawk

Swainson’s hawk over our pasture.

Buckeye butterfly

Buckeye butterfly. I read that adults live for a little over a week and that plantain is one of the plants where they lay eggs. There is plenty of that in the pasture right now. I’ll have to go inspect those for eggs and caterpillars.

Forage looper moth-m

This might be a Forage Looper Moth–that is the closest ID I got from browsing the internet for look-alike moths and butterflies.

Johnson grass

Johnson grass. This grass is taller than me and is growing at the south end of the pasture. We try to get rid of it when we find it because it is very competitive and the sheep won’t eat the coarse leaves and stems. From the internet: “Under certain conditions, the leaves of johnsongrass (and sorghum) can produce toxic amounts of hydrocyanic acid, which can poison livestock when ingested.” Medusahead-dry

The medusahead is drying out.

I moved the fence and the sheep were ready to go out for breakfast.

More Pasture Plants

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Robin

This is a continuation of What’s in the Pasture. I have a lot more plants to go.

I changed the fence to move the sheep from the south half of the Horse Pasture (no horses for a long time) to the north half. They came running.

They were ready for fresh feed…

…because this is what they left behind. I have moved the net fence a few inches off the fresh pasture. You can see what it looked like on the other side of the fence.

Orchardgrass-m

I think this is orchardgrass, but I’m not 100% sure.

Orchardgrass ligule

When you identify grasses it helps to look at more than just the seed head. This photo shows the ligule which this publication from the Wisconsin Cooperative Extension (which also has a good diagram of grass parts) describes for orchardgrass as “prominent; cuts or splits on whitish margin”. Yeah, I can see that. This one from UCD is also a good resource.

Curly dock

Lately I have left my 40 mm lens on the camera and get a kick of of looking closely at things that I see better on my computer than through my glasses.This one is Curly Dock.

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Here is the not-so-interesting photo of it.

Spiny cocklebur

I have made good progress at getting rid of Spiny Cocklebur, but it will never all be gone. I continue to chop any of these that I see. Obviously I haven’t dealt with these along the corral fence but need to take a shovel instead of a camera when I walk out here. Spiny cocklebur-close2

You can see why it is undesirable and the reason it thrives even where everything else has been eaten. Besides the thorns the flowers develop into nasty burs that stick in fleece and hurt fingers.

blackberry

Speaking of thorns and eating, I’ll deal with the thorns when the eating is this good. And I won’t complain that the bushes are completely covering the electric fence. I had my first ripe blackberry this morning.

Sprout Yarn Scarf

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Robin

Friends and customers told me that I should start carrying sock yarns so last winter I chose a few special yarns. One is Sprout, a fingering weight superwash Merino yarn that is dyed and marketed by The Fiber Seed, the business name of a delightful couple who live in Florida.

This colorway is called Quicksilver and is dyed in one of several dye patterns they use.

Chris saw me photographing this and commented that I was going to weave something to match my cell phone.

Here is what it looks like after winding into a ball.

Too many people think that you can’t using “knitting yarns” for weaving and vice-versa. To me, yarn is yarn. This yarn is very stretchy and you need to plan for that from the start. I measured the warp on my warping frame under a light tension, also taking time to match up the color repeat. That way I have a warp where the colors don’t mix, but move from yellow to gray and repeat (which you will see in the finished piece). That may not work with every dye pattern or warp plan, but it worked perfectly for this one.

Notice how open this is. I sett the warp at 12 epi (ends per inch) and wove it with a very light beat. Beginning weavers often BEAT, instead of ~~beat~~ press the weft in. In this case that would completely cover up the warp and not make fabric appropriate for a scarf. This yarn is under tension and when it comes off the loom a lot of those spaces will fill in.

I could have chosen to weave this with a solid color to maximize the effect of the color movement in the warp, but one of my goals is to show what can be done using just one skein. The color repeat in the skein means that when using this yarn for weft the color changes after about every fourth weft pick. Notice also how the color changes over-ride the pattern of the weave structure. This is one of my favorite weave structures, but in this piece I used it for the drape and texture it would give the piece and not because you’d see the design it makes when I use solid yarns.

971 Sprout scarf

I knew this wool wouldn’t “full” because the yarn is superwash, but wet finishing will still change the look of the piece. I soaked it in water, agitating as if I was fulling it. I should have taken a photo but it was late at night. After that process the scarf looked pretty awful. The yarn reverted from being lofty and squishy to long and stringy. The fringe looked bad. I laid the scarf out to dry as I usually do and it was very disappointing. Then I remembered–Superwash! I put the scarf in the dryer with a big towel. That was the answer!

This scarf is lofty, bouncy, and very soft.

Here are the stats:

On the loom: 7.25″ x 81″ measured under tension

Off the loom: 6″ x 68″ (Remember, I told you it was stretchy!)

Wet after washing: 6.25″ x 72″ (and not looking very good)

After drying in dryer: 5.25″ x 58″ Perfect!

Another cool thing for you knitters is that each yarn comes with a QR code that links to a knitting pattern using the yarn.

I guess I need to get these yarns on my website, but there are so many color and dye pattern choices that will be difficult. I’ll work on it. In the meantime, if you are interested you can always ask me to send photos or come to the shop.

Glimpses of the Farm

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Robin

Slowly by surely I am trying to get organized with Lightroom, my new photo software. Does learning new software count up there as a stressor along with changing jobs, spouses, or health issues? Here are some random photos taken over the last month while doing chores.

Our new signpost on the way to the barn, in case visitors are unsure of where they are. Not really. It is on the way to the barn but was constructed by my husband for the memorial service we had here for his dad. Our birthplaces are at the top, followed by parents’, siblings’, and our kids’ birthplaces or current locations.

Dog toy on roof

Speaking of the barn I call this Dog Toy on the Roof.

Wood

Wood from a tree my son took down for us.

Brewers blackbird

Brewer’s Blackbird feasting on mulberries.

Western kingbird

I think I got this ID right–Western Kingbird.

11056 Hot Lips

This is Hot Lips making an announcement.

Ginny hoping to be called into service.

Did I mention when I got the tractor stuck? This is a dry field, or it’s supposed to be. There must be a leak in a pipe and this corner is sopping weight. I was mowing foxtails and made a tight turn to do a thorough mowing job as far into the corner as I could.

Tractor stuck

Do you see that the mower on the back of the tractor is right up at the fence on one side and the bucket is resting on a fencepost. There is no way to maneuver this thing out.

Dan spent about an hour jacking and digging…

…and jacking and digging, each time trying to wedge another board under. Every time he’d remove the jack to wedge in another board the weight of the tractor rested on the fence post which creaked ominously. The boards that the jack was on kept squishing down in the mud, but eventually he got the wheel up to almost ground level. Still, there was no way to drive the tractor out without some help.

My 2-wheel drive pick-up was called into service and Dan chained it to the tractor. When he put the tractor in gear the truck gave just enough assistance, pulling sideways, so that the tractor wheel got out of the hole and onto dry ground.

At the Loom

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Robin

I haven’t posted many weaving projects lately. I’ve been focused elsewhere, but here are some things that I’ve finished.

I wove 16 baby blankets on a mostly blue warp in May.

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This one isn’t weaving but it is a textile project. My friends found out that I planned to sew flower girl dresses for my granddaughter and the other flower girl in my son’s wedding. They offered to help. I am grateful that they did because it took three of us all day to sew two little dresses!

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This view shows the back and the front of the dresses.

Unfortunately I never got a good shot of both the girls in their dresses.

Back to weaving.

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The wedding colors were navy blue and yellow and I wove a chenille throw in those colors as a wedding gift. Another friend suggested some how using wedding details in the weaving. I used the date (5/20/16) to design the stripes. The yellow stripes have 5, 20, and 16 threads (doubled and reversed for symmetry). DSC_9761-2

Next up was a rug for my daughter. My friends always hear me say “I am not a rug weaver.” I think there is a special skill needed to weave a really good rug, but this one turned out OK and it was a fun project. Two years ago we had a baby shower for my daughter and I bought fabric to cover the outside tables instead of using plastic tablecloths. The colors were those that my daughter was using in the new baby’s room (kind of a forest scene with pink). My plan was to make a rug for the baby’s room. That didn’t happen before she was born. It didn’t happen before Christmas, or the second Christmas. I finally wove it and was able to give it to my daughter for her birthday in June.

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The little bits of yellow were leftovers from the flower-girl dresses.

Next project is to weave a vest using handspun yarn that I just finished. That will be another post.

Lambs in Silhouette

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Robin

It’s hard to get a photo of my bottle lambs because I can’t get far enough away.

What’s in the Pasture?

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Robin

The pasture is not a lawn. It is not a monoculture. My brother says it is more of a salad bar for sheep. Unless you walk around out there you don’t realize the number of plants that grow there. I am embarrassed that after 16 years of living here I don’t know the names of all of them. I have decided to change that. I am going to combine my enjoyment of photography and my recently dredged up college hobby (and class projects) of pressing plants and create a personalized herbarium of sorts. These photos are a start.I irrigated this weekend. The sheep were just moved off the paddock to the right and when it dries up enough they will go on the one to the left. Can you see the difference? It took only two days for them to eat that feed. Birdsfoot trefoil-2 One of their favorite plants is Birdsfoot Trefoil. It is a legume which means it is one of the plants that converts nitrogen in the air to a form that can be used by the plant. It is actually not the plant that does that but the bacteria that live in nodules on the roots of legumes.Clovers are also legumes. This is a variety of white clover.This morning I noticed just a few of these flowers. I can’t decide if this is a variant of the white clover or is a different species. The leaves are similar. I’ll have to do some more checking.Do you see how most of the other plants have been eaten and this one has not been touched? The sheep avoid plants that are toxic to them. This is Narrow-leaved Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis). Not only is it a favored species for the monarch butterfly but according to a Plant Guide published by the NRCS “Zuni people utilize the silky seed fibers, which are spun on a hand-held wooden spindle, made into yarn, and woven into fabric (especially for dancers)…Milkweeds supply tough fibers for making cords and ropes, and for weaving a coarse cloth. Milkweeds stems are collected after the stalks dry in late fall to early winter. The dried stalks are split open to release the fibers. Milkweed fibers are sometimes mixed with fibers of Indian hemp, Apocynum cannabinum.” Sounds like a good challenge to my fiber-loving friends.
Narrow-leaved milkweed-3 These are Narrow-leaved Milkweed flowers in various stages… Narrow-leaved milkweed-5 …and a close-up.Field bindweed (Convolvulaceae arvensis), also known as morning glory. It is, according to a U.C. IPM website, “a perennial broadleaf, is considered one of the most problematic weeds in agricultural fields throughout temperate regions worldwide”.Soft Chess or Soft Brome, a non-native annual grass. Hare barley

Hare Barley. Also from the U.C. IPM site, “It is a useful livestock forage early in the season before the flower spikes develop. However, at maturity the spikelets have stiff, barbed, needle-like awns, and sharp bases that can injure the mouth, eyes, nasal passages, ears, and skin of animals.” Those are one of the many grass seeds we call foxtails and spend a fortune getting out of dogs ears and noses and agonize over when we find an otherwise beautiful fleece full of them.Medusahead as it is drying out. Medusahead covers thousands of acres of California foothills. It is not normally found in irrigated pasture, but it is in the easternmost paddock here which sometimes does not irrigate well. I have reclaimed part of that paddock, but I continually fight this plant. I find patches of it in other areas of the pasture and, although this is not an effective control technique, I pull it up by the handfuls as I walk by, coming back to the barn with it stuffed in the pockets of my overalls. It is a nasty plant that is “…among the worst weeds: not only does medusahead compete for resources with more desirable species, but it changes ecosystem function to favor its own survival at the expense of the entire ecosystem…Because grazing animals selectively avoid this plant, and because medusahead thatch tends to suppress desirable forage species, infestations often develop into near-monotypic stands.” From the U.C. Davis Medusahead Management Guide.

I have ID’d this one as Blunt Spikerush (Eleocharis obtusa), not a grass, but a sedge that is found on poorly drained soil and marshy areas. That’s my pasture…poorly drained soil. There is a lot of this sedge in the middle and south end of three or four of the paddocks. It looks like foot-tall grass, but that is why it is important to actually look at what is out there. This does not make good forage. Buckhorn plantain-3 A rather artsy shot of Buckhorn Plantain, found throughout California… Buckhorn plantain-2.jpg …and a photo in which you will probably more easily recognize it.

Well, that’s nine species of plants in the pasture. There are dozens more to go.

Wedding Dress Blues

Posted on May 24, 2016 by Robin

I like jeans and sweatshirts or shorts and t-shirts. I rarely go anywhere that I need to wear more. There was an upcoming wedding. Not just any wedding. I’m the Mother-of-the-Groom and will be forever more in photo albums and on Facebook. I figured that this may be the last time in my life that I have to wear a dress. I am not a shopper. What to do?

I was telling Farm Club friends the story of the dress I wore to my oldest son’s wedding seven years ago. There was an “aha” moment…I’ll do it again. Here is the story. Wedding-1986_

This is our wedding day in 1986. We got married at the dairy where we lived and worked and I made Dan’s and Matt’s matching shirts. I don’t remember where I got the dress but it wasn’t a “wedding dress”. It was just a white dress that fit me.

This is Matt’s wedding many years later. I’m wearing the same dress. I dyed it and made a shawl to go with it.

When my daughter got married a few years later the wedding was to be an outdoors wedding in Vermont in the fall. Based on normal weather patterns I chose a wool dress and boots and made a chenille shawl. There was a heat wave and I probably could have used the same dress but who knew?

My aha moment came when I realized that I could use this dress for another wedding. I like the dress and it fits me and I Don’t Have to Shop. Why not?

The wedding colors were navy blue and yellow. The bridesmaids and the Mother-of-the-Bride were all wearing navy blue. I was discussing colors with a friend and she offered to help me dye the dress with indigo. Realize that we’re about 5 weeks from the wedding date at this point. Dottie brought a car-load of supplies. She put indigo in a tea strainer and we watched the water turn color. We also noticed a metallic sheen on the water and weren’t sure what to do about that. We forged ahead……sampling with cotton fabric that Dottie had brought with her. The metallic stuff showed up on the fabric but it seemed that we could wipe it off easily.So we went ahead with the dress. When dyeing with indigo you don’t want to stir up the dye bath because indigo dyeing relies on a chemical reaction as the fabric comes out of the dye and reacts with oxygen. If you introduce oxygen into the dye bath you lose some of the effectiveness of the indigo.When you bring something out of an indigo bath it is green at first.As it reacts it turns blue. Usually you rely on several dips to darken the color, but this one came out fairly dark the first time. However, we saw unevenly dyed areas where I had been too careful about lowering the dress into the bath and the dye didn’t get into the folds. There was also that metallic stuff in spots. I decided to hose the dress off (no pictures at this point) and see what it looked like. Not good. Very splotchy and not in a good way. So I tried again, this time stirring the dress in the pot with my hands. It was more important to get an even dye job than to save the dye bath for later.Here is the final product. But we weren’t done. There was another step and that was a surprise to me. First though the dress had to be completely dry, so that step was going to have to wait until later.No, one of us didn’t grow an extra hand. Dottie came with a friend who took some of these photos while we were working.

The next step involved a process that indigo expert, John Marshall, describes in a booklet about using soy milk when dyeing with indigo.

This seemed very involved and I put it off about a week but knew that I had better get moving because it was a lengthy process. Dottie had brought soaked soybeans and I had put them in the freezer. I thawed them and followed the instructions in the booklet to prepare soy milk. I put the soaked beans in the blender and added water.

After blending I poured the mixture into a cloth lined colander. This process is repeated three times, adding water each time to make more soy milk.

Eventually I had a bucket with enough soy milk to cover the dress.

This is the leftovers from the process (which, by the way, I fed to the chickens).

I soaked the dress and put it on a hanger. The dress was supposed to cure for a minimum of two to three weeks to ensure that any leftover indigo would not “crock” or come off. (Picture washing brand new jeans with white things and the dye running…or me hugging the bride and leaving streaks of blue on her dress.) Time was running out and about a week before the wedding I dunked the dress in a bucket of water with synthrapol (a detergent that is meant to attach to unfixed dye particles). Low and behold, there was very little discoloration of the water. Dottie, you nailed it!

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The big day arrived and the dress was just fine. You can’t tell from this photo but I belted it with a silk scarf that one of my Farm Club friends dyed with our eucalyptus leaves. I chose shoes that matched the sash and when I looked back at the other wedding photos I realized that I was wearing the same shoes that I wore at Matt’s wedding!

The Main Event

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Robin

The girls were beautiful, the guys were dressed (see last post), and it was time for the wedding. After enjoying sunny skies at the beginning of the week we were a bit concerned about the weather forecast. The prediction changed daily whether or not it would be partly sunny, partly cloudy, or mostly cloudy, and whether there was a 10% or 50% chance of rain, and would that rain come Friday or hold off until Saturday.

I don’t have photos of the actual procession or ceremony but there are plenty on Facebook now. The classic has to be when, after trying to get Flower Girl #2 (Kirby) to walk up the short aisle, Daddy carried her down the aisle spreading flowers from Kirby’s basket as he went.

It was a beautiful ceremony with a beautiful couple. Afterwards there were all the official photos.

Kirby was willing to be included in these…well, sort of. She was focused on picking up all the flower petals.

My kids and their spouses.

While the wedding party was busy with photos guests played games and used the photobooth. Dinner was served. Chris pointed out that his family sat at Tables 1 & 2 and the other 14 or so were Meryl’s family (and other friends). His point was that he was glad to become part of such a large family. But the practical aspect of that turned out to be that Tables 1 through 4 had been served dinner and then the huge dark clouds that we had been watching come in from the northwest let loose. The rain was intense and everyone made for the house, which was supposed to be for only the bridal party and not all the guests and certainly not for food. (Later the owner of the venue told us that she made an exception because of how pleasant, responsible, and easy-to-work-with our kids and their friends had all been.)

As thunderstorms do, this one passed, leaving things wet and soggy. Chairs were wiped off and the festivities continued, albeit cold and windy. (I had loaded the car with blankets and jackets in anticipation.)

Kirby (or her parents) had the foresight to bring appropriate clothing in case of rain.

A little rain didn’t stop the dancing.

Kirby took her Dad to the dance floor.

Brothers.

Chris’ new grandma was given a seat at the bridal party table.

Speeches were made.

The cake(s), made by a special friend, were cut. Chris wanted chocolate and Meryl wanted white. So there were three cakes, one with a big C and a Starwars quote (“I love you…I know”), one with a big M and a Harry Potter quote (“Always”), and a marbled cake to cut together.

The storm had made for perfect conditions for photos…

…including those at sunset.

These are just a sampling of the photos that I took, but there are so many more taken by friends and family to help us remember this wonderful occasion. I’ve seen hundreds on Facebook already–isn’t the digital age wonderful when used in this way?

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.